Thankful Thursday: Smiles

How can I help but have a wonderful day when I wake up to these boys' adorable smiles?



Cheeser!



Sweet baby.





So happy!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Joshua!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our precious Joshua Jace!

We celebrated his birthday with my family yesterday. Sloppy Joe's & birthday cake...the perfect birthday meal! :-)

Joshua, Luke and I spent our day lounging, playing and watching movies of Joshua's choice. We waited until Daddy got home to open gifts...little man made out pretty well!

We finished our evening by devouring some left over birthday cake and reading Dr. Seuss's Happy Birthday to You!

"Today you are you! That is truer than true. There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" Happy Birthday, sweet boy! You have brought so much love and joy into our lives! Momma and Daddy love you so very much!

6 Weeks

Happy 6 week birthday, Luke! This has been a fun week for our family! The weekend was spent enjoying the company of family and friends as we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior. So thankful for the precious gift of grace in Jesus Christ!

Sweet baby in his Christmas jammies!

He got to star as the Baby Jesus in the childrens' program at our church on Christmas Eve (did Jesus have red jammies?). He slept through the whole event!

Luke has been waking up to eat just once a night. We are thrilled with this, because at this age Joshua was still waking 2-3 times each night. Sometimes he sleeps 4 hours at a time, but we have also recently had a couple SEVEN-HOUR stretches. Good boy! :-D

My favorite development this week has been SMILES. Luke is starting to smile more and more and we are loving it! They are difficult to catch on film, but I sort of caught one in this photo. It's amazing what a grown adult will do to coerce a smile from a baby, haha!

Can you believe Christmas has already come and gone? It seems to have just flown by this year (in fact, where did the entire year of 2011 go?!?!)! Praying we remember to keep the reason for the season close to our hearts all year round! Tomorrow we get to celebrate our big boy...as he turns TWO!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Love,

The Hollemans

Merry Christmas!

Just some pictures of our sweet boys in their Christmas jammies!

Enjoy this Christmas weekend! Love and blessings!

Mike, Krys, Joshua & Luke

Luke's Birth Announcement

First Words Blue Birth Announcement

Graduation invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

7 More Days...

Can you believe that in just 7 more days this little man will be TWO YEARS OLD?!?! So much has happened in the past two years!

Even though it makes me sad how quickly our handsome guy is growing up, I can't wait to celebrate him next week and all the joy he has brought into our lives! And I am going to try to soak up every minute of his one-year-oldness that we have left! :-)

5 Weeks

Hard to believe little man is 5 weeks old already! He is such a perfect addition to our family! Today was the first time in 5 weeks that I took the boys grocery shopping all on my own. I was pretty nervous about it, but they both did great and we managed to get everything checked off our list! It's a good thing we didn't need many groceries, though, because with the car seat and a toddler in the cart, there wasn't room for much food! ;-)

The three of us were all pretty worn out after our excursion, so we took a nice, long nap this afternoon!

Hope you had a good Monday...only 6 more days until Christmas!

"New" Toy

A couple days ago, I set up the baby play gym (incorrectly, by the way - it had been a while since I last put the thing together!) for Luke. It lights up and plays music, and was one of Joshua's favorite toys when he was a babe.

Luke found this "new" toy completely boring and fell asleep within minutes, but Joshua could not get enough! He explored and played with it for a good couple hours! :-)

Saturday Morning Scene

Someone slept in until 7:30 - what a good boy!

It is so sweet to hear him read to himself. This morning he was reading, "Thomas." He just keeps repeating the words, "Thomas, Friends, Trains, Sodor, Engines, Percy..." So cute! I love that he loves books so much!

Taking a Saturday morning snooze! I cannot get over how much he looks like Joshua at this age! I frequently catch myself calling him "Joshua," haha!

Last night we moved Luke into the crib in his own room. For the past week or so, Momma has not been sleeping well at night. The babe is a LOUD sleeper...lots of snoring, grunts, sighs & moans, and it has been keeping me up at night - I jump at every little noise! So, last night, a desperate momma decided it was time for a change. I was worried it wouldn't go well (it took us MONTHS to get Joshua to sleep in his crib), but he did great! And Momma was actually able to sleep in-between feedings - hallelujah! It's amazing what a good night's rest will do - I feel like a new woman this morning! :-)

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Love,

M, K, JJ & LB

Reading

Sweet big brother "reading" to his baby brother.

Love these boys!

Cashed Out

A couple weeks ago, we traveled to Iowa to visit my parents. While we were there, Joshua refused to take a nap, and this was the result...

The kid can be a BEAR when he misses his nap (he gets that from his momma!), so it was good that he finally cashed out on Daddy's lap!

Doesn't he look so much older than an almost-two-year-old?!?! He is growing up way too fast!

4 Weeks

Baby Luke is already a whole month old! We are finally getting settled into a bit of a routine. He wakes for the day at about 7:30 a.m. and the rest of our day basically goes like this: eat, awake time, take a nap, eat, awake time, take a nap, and so on. At night, he sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hours the first stretch, and then usually another 3-4 hours before he is up for the day. Pretty good for a 4-week-old I'd say!

Check out those adorable, chubby cheeks! I still don't think he is as big as his brother was at this age, but he is definitely gaining quickly! He is almost too long for most of his 3-month onesies already!

Most of the time, Luke is very content, unless he is hungry or has a tummy ache. He has recently taken an interest in watching his big brother run like a crazy man all over the house!

Sweet smiles. Wonder what he is dreaming about?

We are settling in for a relaxing night of watching movies. Hope you all had a happy Monday!

Love and blessings,

M, K, JJ & LB

The Lord's Prayer

Last night, while tucking Joshua in, Mike decided to try to teach him the Lord's Prayer. We were shocked to discover he already knows it! :-)

What a Cheeser!

Just some adorable photos of our big boy hamming it up for the camera!

Such a cutie patootie and he knows it!

Please ignore the fact that he has been in his pajamas in all of my recent posts...it's a rare occasion when we actually get dressed around here lately. LOL.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for: NAPS! :-)

There really is nothing sweeter than a sleeping child!

Naps allow us a chance to refresh ourselves, body, mind, spirit and heart.

Christmas Tree 2011

Last week, we spent an evening decorating our Christmas tree. I love my S'mores snowmen ornaments! Everything has to match - I am my mother's daughter! ;-)

We didn't have Joshua help us decorate yet this year...we feared if we let him hang the ornaments, he would think he could play with them any time. So far, he has not paid much attention to the tree. Next year, we will definitely get him involved with the decorating process!

I love having the tree and my other Christmas decorations up - makes the house feel so festive! I still have LOTS of Christmas shopping to do, though...only 19 more days! I'd better get my behind in gear!

Enjoy your evening!

~K